Wednesbury Old Canal

Wednesbury Old Canal
Pudding Green Junction. The Wednesbury Old Canal leads under the bridge from the BCN Main Line, which runs left and right
Specifications
Length	4.4 miles (7.1 km)
Status	part open, part dry
Navigation authority	Canal and River Trust
History
Principal engineer	James Brindley
Date of act	1768
Date of first use	1769
Date closed	1955, 1960
Geography
Start point	Pudding Green Junction (originally Spon Lane Junction)
End point	Balls Hill Basin
Branch of	Birmingham Canal Navigations

Wednesbury Old Canal is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) in West Midlands (county), England. It opened in 1769, and although parts of it were abandoned in 1955 and 1960, the section between Pudding Green Junction and Ryder's Green Junction is navigable, as it provides a link to the Walsall Canal, while a short stub beyond Ryder's Green Junction is also navigable.

Wednesbury Old Canal leaves the main line Birmingham level at Pudding Green Junction and passes through a completely industrial landscape. At Ryders Green Junction the Walsall Canal begins its descent down the eight Ryder's Green Locks. Just before the locks Wednesbury Old Canal veers off and commences its meandering route through Swan Village and, originally, around the collieries. The canal beyond Swan Bridge Junction was also known as the Balls Hill Branch.

This part of the canal is now only open to boat traffic as far as the Black Country Spine Road, following the decision to build a new bridge which didn't allow enough headroom for boats to pass. The Wednesbury Canal is dry from this point, but the Ridgacre Branch continues, watered for most of its original length (without its branches) past the culverted road and, although inaccessible to boats, is now used for fishing, walking and is a valued wildlife habitat.

Some modern sources mark the Ridgacre as starting at Ryder's Green Junction but this is not historically correct.

The Wednesbury Canal was part of the first phase of the Birmingham Canal (the first around the Black Country or Birmingham). It was authorised in the 1768 Birmingham Canal Act which authorised the Birmingham Canal and branches to Wednesbury and Ocker Hill as a major branch of the Birmingham Canal and was completed and delivering coal to Birmingham on 6 November 1769, even before the Birmingham Canal had reached Wolverhampton.

It started at what is now Spon Lane Junction (Wolverhampton Level) and descended the three remaining Spon Lane locks to the Birmingham Level. Its length was 4.4 miles (7.1 km). It terminated at Balls Hill Basin, not far from the later Tame Valley Canal.